Sure. Just that will suffice.
Jinseong said this looking at Rise’s smiling face through the smartphone, seemingly reassured.
Caught up in confusion but breaking free from it, Jinseong couldn’t hide his satisfaction at witnessing Rise’s gradually growing spirit as the cost of her experiences.
“By the way, your outfit is a bit messy. Since night has fallen and the wind is likely to be cold, it would be best to go inside and warm up before you catch a cold.”
“Eh? Ah….”
Rise glanced at her own attire at Jinseong’s words.
Her yukata was thin and white enough to show hints of her skin.
Considered more as a substitute for pajamas, it was incredibly flimsy, and the lightness of the fabric caused it to flutter in the wind.
The yukata when the wind swept through seemed disheveled, revealing parts of her skin that she had previously covered snugly. Plus, it clung here and there as if she had broken a sweat.
As soon as Rise realized this, she quickly turned her smartphone.
Then, to cool her flushed face, she fanned herself a few times and casually turned the smartphone back to face her. However, unlike earlier when most of her upper body was visible, now the zoom was pulled in tightly, showing only Rise’s face.
Rise fanned herself from outside the smartphone, sending a breeze to cool her face, acting as if nothing were amiss.
“The shrine is not that cold, perhaps due to its location. And thanks to the divine power, I don’t worry about minor illnesses. So you don’t need to worry too much about me.”
“Is that so?”
Jinseong responded without showing any sign of noticing Rise’s flushed face.
“That said, you still need to sleep. It’s almost time for the festival, so it’s not safe to be wandering around outside. Go inside and rest. You don’t need to be overly concerned about that Ryosuke fellow… It’s enough that he gets checked and ostracized by other politicians.”
As he spoke, Jinseong stroked his chin in thought.
“I suppose it would be good to deal with him on the day I mentioned. If he doesn’t want to showcase his abilities, he should be used as a tool instead. Hmm, getting tangled up with a warrior from Yatadoarangkryu isn’t a bad idea either…”
“Yatadoarangkryu, you say?”
Upon hearing that phrase, Rise frowned slightly, perhaps recalling unpleasant memories.
In the past, she had snuck out only to become entangled with a troublesome warrior from Yatadoarangkryu and suffered greatly because of it.
“It’s not a place with particularly pleasant memories…”
The very persistent, unpleasantly coaxing behavior of that ruffian had left her in such a tough spot that it had become a long time before she could consider sneaking out again without being Shadowed by a watcher whenever she wanted to move even to school or the shrine.
It had been so dreadful that she had felt like a bird trapped in a cage, slowly decaying.
“That would be the case. You certainly endured a lot of suffering tangled up with that ruffian.”
Startled, Rise looked at Jinseong.
“You know about that incident?”
“Of course.”
Jinseong smiled back at Rise, who was taken aback by his question.
“Thanks to that, I became aware of your existence, and this shrine as well.”
“Huh?”
“The line of causality between you two was established thanks to that warrior.”
Rise could only stare blankly at Jinseong’s statement.
So shocked was she that her mouth slightly opened, her eyes losing focus as if she had been hit on the back of the head with a hammer.
“Those warriors are truly dreadful beings, utterly useless with not a single connection worth mentioning; the only ones that remain are trash that have already departed for the afterlife. My ties with Yatadoarangkryu are severed, and all that is left for those individuals is to live a lower-class life.”
Jinseong began to speak about the warrior.
“Haha, did that surprise you? The ill fate that once approached you is connected here, isn’t that surprising?”
“Is that so? Yes… it’s surprising.”
Rise looked at Jinseong as if she couldn’t comprehend how this was possible.
“Let me tell you this. The one entangled with you by ill will is dead.”
“Huh?”
“So you need not worry at all about any fallouts from that chain of grievances coming back to haunt you.”
Rise’s eyes widened again at the news of the warrior’s death.
So astonished was she that fox ears popped out of her head, perking up and shaking while her luxurious tail, rather transparent in form, peeked out of her yukata, exhibiting lively movements as her emotions shone through.
“The heavens have a way of balancing, even if it seems lax and wide. It doesn’t let evildoers slip through its fingers. The revenge that seemed to conclude merely with exile to Korea has been wrapped up by my own hand—how could this not be considered a mystery of fate?”
Jinseong gazed at the twitching fox ears as he spoke.
“That ruffian was a wretched being, spreading only adverse effects and serving as poison to the land, a nuisance seeking to provoke misfortune—it was I who made the effort to clear such trash.”
Without realizing, Rise nodded her head at his words.
The horrific encounter she had with the warrior, along with the subsequent news about his behavior and past, had naturally led her to affirm his statements.
“He met his end at the very bottom of a cave, without a ray of sunlight, becoming food for insects, his soul rotting away. That’s the fate of something without value. Even if it’s utterly worthless, it had a tiny purpose of moving causality, allowing me to discover you and come to your aid.”
Jinseong closed his eyes, speaking with a light, compassionate tone.
“Something useless in life becomes of value in death. But offering kindness is virtuous, unrelated to life or death. Perhaps that ruffian closed his eyes grateful for having built up virtue, clutching a slender thread leading to paradise amidst the transient life he lived.”
With that, Jinseong lightly offered his condolences for the man who would have become a ghost, then turned to Rise.
“So. You now know that the one who bore a grudge against you is dead, and that this enemy’s actions brought me here to save you. How do you feel?”
“…It’s complicated. But I do think it was good that he died…”
Rise wore a perplexed expression, unsure of what to say.
Jinseong burst into laughter at her expression.
“That’s good enough. His death isn’t something you must bear, it was solely the result of his own karma. To put it another way, it’s no different than sitting by the riverside thinking about that man while the corpse floats down from upstream.”
“Yes, what you said, Deity… is right.”
“Then let me ask you. Now that the enemy has been avenged, are you saying that there’s no longer any connection to the places that enemy once inhabited?”
Rise pondered over Jinseong’s question.
Yet, the answer quickly emerged, needing little contemplation.
“No.”
“Indeed.”
With that answer, Jinseong nodded.
“There’s a bond there that’s inherently empathetic, with the strings of causality intertwining. They create an unbreakable link, a magical empathy. Just as you cannot discuss the present without considering the past, the wrongs of that warrior are surely tied to the trajectory of life itself—the very place that fed, clothed, and taught him was Yatadoarangkryu.”
“Yes. There are no bad feelings, but there are no good feelings either.”
“That’s right. This means even if something unexpected happens with politicians as bait, you wouldn’t regret it.”
Rise began to nod at Jinseong’s words, but something seemed to come to her mind, as she parted her lips slightly. But she closed her mouth tightly, attempting to swallow her question back, yet the muscles around her mouth wiggled as if she wanted to ask something. She then looked elsewhere and asked Jinseong quietly.
“Deity, um… If I had said there were good feelings…”
“If that were the case, I would have surely chosen another path.”
Jinseong answered, matter-of-factly.
“Is, is that so? Is that the only way it could be?”
“Yes, that’s indeed true.”
At that, Rise’s face began to shift into a smile.
She giggled and covered her cheek with one empty hand, her fingers wiggling gently.
“Well, it seems it’s late, and you’ve returned to your room, so I’ll end this call for now.”
“Okay.”
A smile remained on Rise’s face as the conversation came to an end.
